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 Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:17 am
 He came here often to this place where, sometime ago now, he had chased away the only person who might have come to care for him. He had regretted it every day since and still wondered whether his claws had left a scar upon her cheek.
He could still recall the horrified expression on her face when she realised that he had hit her. Could still recall as that horror had transformed into hideous, uncharacteristic anger. She had retaliated then, slamming into him with all the force she could muster. He had been larger but she had been strong and he had been too surprised to defend himself against her sudden assault. He had lain there long after, watching the sun drop down until he could feel the chill of evening creep into his bones. But she didn't come back.
She never came back.
He rubbed a paw across the dust where he had fallen after her attack and wondered whether he should have gone after her. But even now, he knew, that her swifter paws would have carried her far ahead and he would be chasing shadows.
Kafara should have been happy that she was gone. He didn't have to keep up any act with her out of the way. And yet he missed her and he mourned the life that he could have had. The life that died the moment he had lost his temper and struck her. This miserable life was the one that he had chosen and now he would have to live with it.
With a low growl, he turned and began to pad slowly down the decline of the slope, wishing it was easier to forget mistakes and move on.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:51 am
 Sometimes it was easier to track where a ghost had been than where it was going. That's what Aina'nusu was up to today, following the ghost of an angry, bleeding lioness. The wound hadn't looked too bad to the cheeton's admittedly small experience, but the anger in her expression shook the girl to her core. She had to find out what had happened. The black and tan cheeton wasn't certain what she was looking for until suddenly, she found it. A big purple and pink and white lion who struck the lioness she was following. But...he was there in duplicate. It was hard to tell, but she thought he might have returned to the place later! After the lioness had left! Enraptured by the story she could see unfoldling, Aina rain off after the ghost, wondering if she'd ever see him in the flesh, or only his ghost. For all she knew, he might be long dead.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:06 am
He tracked down across the path; worn into the grass by his numerous visits to this place, kicking at the dust as he went. He had meant this to be his last visit now, determined to move on and forget everything that had happened. But to think of never coming here again and giving up the possibility of seeing her one last time...
Because what if she did come back and he wasn't here when she did?
He'd never been a lion to say sorry. He had not been brought up with manners of gentle words. He had a strange father who he had little interaction with and a mother who didn't seem able to show any sort of love. Their views had been impressed on him at an early age and he had followed them as expected and without questioning--until much later when he began to wonder if these acts weren't perhaps...a little cruel.
In any case, the last thing he was expecting was to look up and see a distant figure approaching the ridge he had just been brooding upon. For a moment his heart leapt. It couldn't be her, could it? And then, no, he realised very quickly that it was not. That it was foolish for him to think such a thing. Perhaps she was even dead, now. Life as a rogue was certainly not an easy one, after all.
His tail lashed with irritation as he turned sharply to the left so as to swing wide and, hopefully, go unnoticed by the passer by.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:37 am
Gods above, what luck! There he was, the exact lion she'd seen! And in the flesh, not just a ghost! Oh, what fun this was going to be!
Of course, it never once crossed Aina'nusu's mind to consider that, what he'd done to one female, he might do to her. Nor did she think he might want the incident she'd seen to be forgotten entirely. She just wanted to know the story behind it, because she could only see ghosts, not hear what had passed.
"Oh, hi!" she called out to the stranger lion. "It's you, the one from further up the mountain!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:59 am
What was going on? Why was this stranger calling across to him and what was she going on about? Further up the mountain? Had they met before? Had she been spying on him?
He drew to a sudden halt and snapped his head around to look at her, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. She was small and oddly shaped for a lioness with a ruff of long fur at the neck as if she were attempting to grow a mane. He definitely would have recognised her if they had met before.
"Have you been spying on me?" He demanded crossly, turning fully to face her. "I wouldn't recommend it. That would displease me and I'm not the nicest lion to be around when I'm displeased."
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:07 am
Well, that brought her to a halt. Spying? It wasn't spying if he left his ghosts where anyone could see, was it? She didn't take much note of how he'd be displeased. Aina'nusu was too accustomed to dealing with ghosts who weren't even aware of her, so how could they feel one way or another about her.
So, "No" she answered cheerfully. "I just saw you, but not you, higher up, with a lioness and boy did she look mad, but it wasn't her either of course, you know?"
The cheeton might want to work on explaining her abilities to strangers. It would probably save her life one day.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:25 am
He blinked and, for a moment, looked visibly startled. How could she possibly know that!? He hadn't spoken aloud and surely she hadn't been around when that had happened. It was long ago now and no one had been there to witness those sad, unfortunate events.
Over his shock, his muzzle gathered into a snarl and he took a brisk step towards her.
"What is this? All this talk of ghosts? How do you know that!" And another step. "You'd better shut your mouth and forget what you saw, rogue. Didn't anyone teach you that poking about in other people's business will end up getting you killed? You have no right knowing that about me." He growled louder. "I ask again. How do you know that?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:07 pm
Instincts that had long lain dormant started to awaken and Aina'nusu realized that she might actually be in danger. This lion was clearly in the here-and-now and she was here with him and he could use those claws on her just the way he had on the ghost lioness.
Oh.
That meant she should actually pay attention to what he was saying. And he was...not happy.
"I...saw it," she told him again, in a smaller voice. "The ghosts of you and of her. Then I saw yours again and I thought I'd follow it and...and maybe you'd tell me what happened?" the cheeton asked, a hopeful note in her voice.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:22 pm
"Ghosts?!" The lion snapped. "Are you insane?!" He shifted his weight from one paw to the other, extending his claws and curling them down into the parched soil beneath him. "We're not dead. Even if she is, I certainly am not. And if you keep blabbering nonsense at me then I'll just have to shut you up."
His snarl did not lesson and his ears sank back into his mane as he processed the madness of this strange-looking female. He had never seen a hybrid before and the only seer he knew was his father but he had yet to connect the two gifts. His father, after all, did not see ghosts.
His father...
"You want to know what happened?" He replied lowly, shutting his eyes for a brief moment. "I thought you saw it? Why would I need to tell you anything?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:32 pm
Aina'nusu hadn't really met very many people in her life, so she really wasn't prepared to deal with the angry purple lion before her. He was just so angry and powerful and she wasn't very good at this.
"I know you're not dead," she retorted, "I found you, didn't I? How was I supposed to know whether that had happened recently or ages ago?" Actually, now she was getting kind of angry with this guy's attitude and refusal to understand what she was saying.
"I only saw," she told him. "I can't hear or smell or touch what happened! There's ghosts everywhere, especially where something very emotional happened."
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:18 am
And then it clicked. At last.
"You're a seer." He said it with such a lack of emotion or enthusiasm that it was clear he'd had some experience with it in the past. His father was a seer, though he did not see 'ghosts' as this one did. He'd never thought much of that power and had hated the thought that someone could pry into his secrets.
"You're not welcome here, seer. I don't want you looking into my life. I don't want you anywhere near me." And as he spoke his hackles lifted and he curled a lip to lay bear his teeth. "You seers only bring more trouble with you. I'll have nothing to do with it and you'll get no answers from me. Go spy on someone who won't try and rip out your throat."
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:47 pm
Well, of course she was a Seer! Isn't that what happened when you had a god for a parent? And hadn't she been saying as much for the past several mintues? Honestly, did she have to spell it out for everyone? Hmph, maybe this purple lion needed a Seer's power just to understand what she was saying. She wouldn't have been surprised to discover that, at least.
Aina'nusu snorted. "It's not like I chose to 'look into your life.' I just happened to see it. And then I thought I'd see where the story went." She paused for effect then, just to make sure he understood her, added "I honestly expected you to be dead."
She'd seen tragic love stories before, or had interpreted some things she'd seen as being tragic love stories. The cheeton had no way to verify her theories most of the time, and it hurt that this time she could, and he wanted nothing to do with her. Fine then. She didn't need him or his story. It didn't matter how it ended, he'd die in the end. Like every living thing had to sooner or later.
"I'll go now," Aina sneered at him. "But not because you threaten me. Because I have no interest in helping an angry, selfish lion like you." A nasty smile curled her lips upward. "Oh yes, I probably could have tracked that lioness' ghost for you, and maybe found her in the flesh as well, but you've quashed any chances of that happening."
She turned to go. "Toodles!" the cheeton called over her shoulder at the annoying purple lion.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:56 am
He growled as she spoke, his fangs white in his jaws as he stared at her. She was a strange looking little thing and with the added oddity of being a seer, Kafara knew that this was not a creature he wanted to deal with. Seers could not be trusted.
But her words effected him and would continue to have a lasting effect long after he had gone. The lion had been brought up to be hard and cold and uncaring. He had hated it but it was all he had known and now he'd lost his only chance to seek a way out of that darkness. And he had no one to blame but himself.
Then she was leaving him and he took a step as if to go after her, except that to do so would be to admit he was wrong and he could never do that. Too much stubborn pride. His growl deepened and then he threw back his head and roared out his anger and frustration.
It was impossible to change.
/fin
(thanks hon!)
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